In practice, self-propelled road pavers are used to produce new road surfaces. Such road pavers are usually equipped with a material hopper that is used to take up the paving mix. The paving mix is transported by means of a conveyor system during the installation drive to a paving screed fastened on the road paver that transforms the paving mix into a new road surface layer.
Modern paving screed types comprise a plurality of electric as well as hydraulic consumers. For example, there can be electric paving screed heating units that are fed by a generator of the road paver via a power line, in particular with alternating current. The generator is preferably driven by a combustion engine of the road paver, in most cases by a diesel engine. Furthermore, there can in particular be hydraulic tamper stroke adjustment units, hydraulically controllable paving screed extending units to broaden the working area as well as, and without being restricted to such, hydraulically adjustable lateral sliders on the paving screed.
In addition, there is already now a plurality of electric and hydraulic components on the paving screed that are functionally integrated in a data network of the road paver and that can be activated by means of a control module that is in particular disposed on the operating stand of the road paver. Alternatively or in addition, the electric and/or hydraulic units of the paving screed can also be activated from an operating stand of the paving screed that is disposed directly, preferably laterally, on the paving screed.
However, it became apparent that, due to the increasing number of electric as well as hydraulic components/consumers on the paving screed, besides the installation work for the power supply, also the complexity of the data cables used to monitor and activate the power supply increases accordingly. This leads in particular to increased manufacturing costs, whereby maintenance works on the road paver also become more complicated.